Five minutes is clock time. The practices and activities in Five Good Minutes® invite you to dwell in the present moment—which is always here and is timeless.

From our perspective, five minutes of clock time begins to change into something much more powerful and interesting when you are present (attention is in the present moment, and not lost in thoughts of past or future), when you set a clear intention for your actions, and when you act wholeheartedly. When you apply attention, intention, and wholeheartedness to these exercises, which are aimed at cultivating peace and relaxation, deepening awareness and connection to life, enhancing relationships, and developing kindness and wisdom, then your five minutes truly becomes five good minutes.

Why Five Minutes in the Morning?

The combination of attention, intention, and wholeheartedness offers you a radically different way of approaching life. It suggests a method to awaken and to come off of “automatic pilot.”

How do you usually begin your day?

Do the same thoughts, feelings, and worries fill your head, even as your eyes open in the morning? Do you handle them in the same ways? Does one day begin to feel too much like the previous one?

We all fall into habits of thinking, feeling, and acting. We seek distraction and relief and something better in our lives. Too many times, we don’t know where to start. Yet, so much of what we seek is actually within us. The exercises in this book invite you to start, for five minutes. They invite you to be more playful, more experimental, more curious about your life. They offer a way to discovering something different—in yourself and about life.

It is best to do your five good minutes when you start your day. For most people, that is in the morning. (If you are on a different schedule, let the time you usually arise be the time for your practice.)

The morning is the best time to break away from old habits of thinking and feeling and to set a new direction for yourself and how you will be in your day.

Excerpt from Five Good Minutes®: 100 Morning Practices to Help You Stay Calm and Focused All Day Longby Jeffrey Brantley, MD. and Wendy Millstine, NC.